Michael Squire FBA (born 1980) is a British

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. He became the

Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology Laurence is in modern use as an English masculine and a French feminine given name. The modern English masculine name is a variant of Lawrence and originates from a French form of the Latin ''Laurentius'', a name meaning "man from Laurentum" ...

in the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 2022. He is a Senior Research Fellow at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, and was elected Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 2022. Squire has research interests in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

culture, the legacy of classical art and the history of Western

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

(especially in the German

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

Early life and education

Squire studied Classics at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. After graduating with a starred first and completing an M.Phil in classical archaeology, he studied

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

as a Knox Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He returned to Cambridge to complete his PhD on ‘Visual and Verbal interactions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity’. In 2006 he took up a Junior Research Fellowship at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, and later obtained a Humboldt Research Fellowship to study at

LMU Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

and the

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt, ...

Academic career

Squire was appointed as Lecturer in Classical Greek Art at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in 2011, then Reader (2015) and Professor (2018). He was Director of Research in the Department of Classics from 2016 to 2022. He was elected

in 2021. Squire has held fellowships at Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Stanford, as well as at the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowled ...

, the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

and the

Berlin Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin () is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled after the original IAS in Princeto ...

. He was awarded the

Gildersleeve Prize The Gildersleeve Prize is an annual award of $1,000 to the author of "the best article of the year" published in the ''American Journal of Philology''. It is awarded by The Johns Hopkins University Press and is named after the classical scholar ...

in 2011, and a

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize sche ...

in 2012. From 2017 he led a project on ‘Modern Classicisms: Ancient Art and Contemporary Artists in Dialogue’, resulting in a London exhibition on 'The Classical Now': the accompanying catalogue was listed among the

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

‘s ‘books of the year’ in 2018. In July 2022, Squire was elected

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the UK's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...

for the humanities and social sciences.

Research interests

Squire's research interests are listed as follows: “Greek and Roman material and visual culture; classical literature, culture and thought; ancient attitudes to the body and sensory archaeology; early Christian art and theology; history of aesthetics (especially in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany); cultural history of ornament; classical traditions and the legacies of Greek and Roman art;

ecphrasis Ekphrasis or ecphrasis (from the Greek) is a rhetorical device indicating the written description of a work of art. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. Thus, "an ekphrastic poem ...

and visual-verbal relations; materialities of text; disciplinary histories of art history, archaeology and anthropology". He is editor of a

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

book series on 'Image, Text and Culture in Classical Antiquity', co-editor of the 'Greek Culture in the Roman World' series for

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, and sits on various journal editorial boards, including ''

Art History Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

''.

Personal life

Michael Squire holds both British and German citizenship. He is married with two children, born in 2019 and 2021.

Selected works

* ''Panorama of the Classical World'' (with

Nigel Spivey Nigel Jonathan Spivey (born 18 October 1958) is a British classicist and academic, specialising in classical art and archaeology. He is a senior lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Emmanuel College. He studied at ...

; Thames and Hudson / Getty, 2004) * ''Image and Text in Graeco-Roman Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009) * ''The Art of Art History in Graeco-Roman Antiquity'' (edited with Verity Platt; 2010 = Arethusa 43.2) * ''The Art of the Body: Antiquity and its Legacy'' (Oxford University Press / I. B. Tauris, 2011) * ''The Iliad in a Nutshell: Visualizing Epic on the Tabulae Iliacae'' (Oxford University Press, 2011) * ''Sight and the Ancient Senses'' (Routledge, 2016) * ''The Frame in Classical Art: A Cultural History'' (edited with Verity Platt; Cambridge, 2017) * ''Morphogrammata/The Lettered Art of Optatian: Figuring Cultural Transformations in the Age of Constantine'' (edited with Johannes Wienand; W. Fink, 2017) * ''Rethinking Lessing’s Laocoon: Antiquity, Enlightenment, and the ‘Limits’ of Painting and Poetry'' (edited with Avi Lifschitz; Oxford University Press, 2017) * ''The Embodied Object in Classical Antiquity'' (edited with Milette Gaifman & Verity Platt; 2018; = Art History 40.3) * ''Ornament and Figure in Graeco-Roman Art: Rethinking Visual Ontologies in Classical Antiquity'' (edited with Nikolaus Dietrich; de Gruyter, 2018) * ''Classical ‘Art History’'' (edited virtual edition of Art History journal, 2018) * ''The Classical Now'' (edited with James Cahill & Ruth Allen; Elephant, 2018) * ''The Art of Hegel's Aesthetics: Hegelian Philosophy and the Perspectives of Art History'' (edited with Paul A. Kottman; W. Fink, 2018)

References

External links

Michael Squire’s staff webpage: Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge

Michael Squire’s Academia homepage

Michael Squire’s profile page at the British Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Squire, Michael 1980 births Living people 21st-century British archaeologists British art historians People from Aylesbury Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of King's College London Laurence Professors of Classical Archaeology Fellows of the British Academy